Give us a reason to use Beats Music

On Jan. 21, Beats Music celebrates its first anniversary. Since then, little has changed about the subscription-based online music streaming service, which Apple acquired along with the rest of Beats Electronics earlier this year.

Rumors suggest that Beats Music will be bundled into iTunes in 2015. This would be a great start, but much more is needed before the service can successfully compete against Spotify and other services.

… A new iPod

We understand that Apple is all about the iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple Pay these days, and rightly so. However, we believe there is still a market for iPods, or rather new iPods.

In 2014, Apple quietly retired the iPod Classic. The iPod touch, iPod shuffle, and iPod nano remain, but haven’t been updated for years.

The time has come for Apple to return to its roots and introduce a new iPod.

What better time is there to do this then when the company introduces its rebranded Beats Music service?

Come back to Austin, Texas

Last March, Coldplay, Soundgarden, and other artists wowed the crowds at the first iTunes Festival to be hosted outside of London, England. We hope to see the iTunes Festival at SXSW return for another year. Next year’s music portion of SXSW in Austin, Texas runs from March 17-22.

Get Photos for Mac right

In June, Apple announced that development on Aperture and iPhoto for Mac would end, and be replaced by Photos for OS X. Since then, we’ve heard nothing from Apple about the new software.

Hopefully, Apple will bring some clarity to this issue early in 2015. Until then, we are left with this video:

Surprise us … again

In 2014, Apple proved that it can still keep a secret.

Though most expected Apple to unveil an “iWatch,” the September introduction of the Apple Watch caught all of us off guard. From the look of the wearable device, to its features, to the depth of the product line, the Apple Watch wowed us for the first time since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

We hope that 2015 features at least one more surprise.

An “iPad Pro” that can run both iOS and OS X would be a surprise. However, we can’t imagine Apple announcing such a product.

Instead, the Apple TV space is the area where Cupertino is most likely to amaze us. We heard for years that Apple wants to reinvent the living room. With the iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch in the rearview mirror, 2015 sounds like the perfect time for the transformation to begin.

We love covering Apple and its many products and services and can’t wait to do so again in the New Year. What are you dreaming about for 2015?